It's not always easy
by EllieLocke
Summary: When Marianne's walking with her friends looking for a job, she finds an intersting note posted on the window of a Music Store, which happens to be property of Harry Judd and Dougie Poynter. Fiction takes place right before McFLY starts.
1. Everything's Not Lost

EVERYTHING'S NOT LOST

_So if you ever feel neglected,_

_If you think that all is lost,_

_I'll be counting up my demons,_

_Hoping everything's not lost._

"Well, let's see," Marianne said as she opened the newspaper on the 'Jobs' section, sitting on a chair by the kitchen table and having a bite of her toast. She had been looking for a suitable job that would match what she was studying for weeks but so far had had no luck – it's not that she _needed_ a job; her parents had made that clear already. But still, it was good to have her own money. She liked buying stuff - a lot - but didn't like to ask for money to get them. The way Marianne looked at things, she didn't think it was fair for her to take her parents' well-earned money to buy clothes. Not anymore, not having 20 years old and two years of University already done. She burnt her tongue rushing to drink her hot coffee, and winced just as one of her friends and current roommate, Bailey, walked into the kitchen. She shared an apartment a few blocks from campus with two mates from Uni, although they didn't pursue the same careers but still shared some classes – amongst other things.

"Found anything?" Bailey asked sitting next to her, also with a coffee mug on her hand. Her usually brownish hair was now dark red and awfully messy – she had obviously been playing with it the night before, dyed it for the millionth time. Noticing the look on Marianne's face, Bailey said yawning "What?! I needed it, you know I was getting bored,"

Mar chuckled and smiled at her friend. "Looks good,"

"I like it," Elle –the third friend in question- agreed nodding, suddenly walking into the kitchen with gigantic bags under her eyes.

"Thanks babe," Bailey said taking the curly hair out of her face so she could look at the paper Marianne was holding.

"Have you seen anything in there?" Elle asked pointing at the page both Mar and Bails were intensely looking at.

"Hmm… not really, it's the same old stuff," Mar sighed annoyed and disappointed, yet again.

It was really frustrating for her – even though she hid it pretty well from everyone, there was still a light missing from her eyes –change only noticed by those who really knew her, and she felt like she was staying behind. You see, Bailey was already managing a video store after only working in there for two months, and was in charge of three shops from that brand. She was studying to become a movie director, and was passionate about everything that involved the word 'film' in it. This way she got to rent free stuff whenever she wanted and was advising and critiquing movies to anybody who walked in, which she particularly enjoyed. Bailey studied at the same place where Ellie pursued her career as a Translator. She _also_ worked - and a lot to tell the truth. She made translations for the UK United Nations Association - and therefore didn't get much free time, but you never saw her complaining.

"Maybe you should look somewhere else?" Bailey suggested, and Ellie pursed her lips thinking.

"Like where?" Mar frowned confused – where could she look for a job if not in the classified section of the main newspaper?!

"I don't know, you're the smart one!" Bailey said pouring more coffee on her mug.

"Didn't the doctor say you should stop drinking so much coffee?" Marianne asked before adding "Maybe I will go down the centre today and see if I can figure something out… want to join me?" she looked at the other two expectant and hopeful, yet annoyed she depended on them so much.

"Yeah, sure, I've got my day off today... And honey, Mar is right – two liters of coffee a day will do you no good."

Bailey ignored that comment, "I'll go too, I need some fresh air. Can we make a stop though? I need some new wires to connect my video camera; it seems the last ones I bought won't work on the iMac,"

"Didn't you just buy them?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah… I hate people who sell things they don't know about. Ugh." she looked down.

"God I really need those vacations!" Marianne said standing up exhausted and going over to her room to get changed... and the day was barely starting.

They were two days away from the end of the term, and three days from going on holidays. All three of them deserved it, and were looking forward to getting away from that crappy weather for a couple of weeks – London could get really annoying sometimes, and after three weeks of rain, clouds and moist in the air, you too would wish you could be away, somewhere with sunny days and warm weather.

A couple of hours later they were walking down the streets, talking about everything and nothing in particular.

"What do you think I should do?" Marianne asked, starting to be desperate about the fact that she was still jobless.

Both of her friends where thinking hard, but neither of them could come up with anything to help her. She was about to give up on the idea and accept the fact that nothing was going to change for now, when something caught the blue eyed girl's attention and gave her a little hope.

A note with messy handwriting was posted on a shop's window, and in large letters it read:

_Help needed._

_Good salary. Part time. _

_Ask in the counter if interested. _

Without thinking it twice, she walked into the store with her friends behind her.

It wasn't too big, but it was cozy inside. There were posters up in the walls, of guitars. Not musicians though, just the guitars.

As she took a look around, a guy came from a door behind the counter and asked a bit too enthusiastically "Can I help you?"

"Ermm… I don't know… I think I got mistaken… I saw the sign by the window, but obviously… yeah, well, thanks," Marianne was blabbering now. After all, she hadn't thought about it and what would she do on a music store? She was studying English and Literature then, not Music Production, Industry, or anything like it for that matter! They wouldn't take her. She was going to turn around and leave when the guy spoke to her.

"Wait up!" he said. She took a moment to have a good look at him - he really was fit. Blondish hair, piercing on his right eyebrow, black framed glasses that made him look as hot as hell. Very skinny -but not creepily- and not so tall, normal height. His eyes were different from anything she'd ever seen… there was something in them that drown her to want to know him. Don't get the wrong idea, not in a _crush_ sort of way, but she was still a girl looking at an extremely pretty but yet weird boy with whom she could see herself spending time with – _again, for the dirty minds reading this, she didn't like him in that way, get it?_ The way he looked back at her might've been what made the whole difference; he looked friendly, shy - a bit preserved even, wary.

"What?" She asked, taking notice of her friends standing by her sides and of the situation around her.

"Well, you said you were here for the sign, right? Are you interested in a job?" he asked pointing at the note she'd seen minutes before.

"Yeah, I was, but I know nothing about guitars or anything else related to music for that matter," she said honestly and apologetically, explaining herself… why go for something that wouldn't help either of them? He'd be stuck with an ignorant and she would be somewhere she wasn't supposed to be, it wasn't her place - clearly.

"Oh, but that's fine. I can teach you, you don't need to know that much really…" he shrugged smiling.

"Hmmm… If that's so… What would I be doing anyway?"

"Well, we just need some help here, running the store. You know, do the usuals; we can teach you everything… The thing is, my friend and I set this up a while ago, last holidays. It was originally a project for College -to design a business- but it ended up catching our attentions and we decided to go for it. We're both studying now and it's hard for us to keep up with everything on our own… and we're not very organized so it could help to have an extra hand around… And to be honest, you're kind of the only one who showed up and we're starting to think of closing…"

So many questions popped into her head, that before she had time to ask any of those, there was a business card being held in front of her face.

"Listen, just think about it and give me a call, ok?"

She nodded weakly and still thoughtful, Mar said "Ok then, it was nice meeting you… _Douglas,_" She finished as she read his name on the business card in her hand.


	2. Nothing Ever Changes

2. NOTHING EVER CHANGES… UNTIL IT DOES.

They left the store and Bailey squeezed Marianne's arm so hard that she actually yelled, making an old couple passing by freak out because of the noise.

"What's wrong with you?" Mar asked to her friend, with a frown on her face while Ellie couldn't help but laugh. 

"Nothing, I'm just so happy for you! This is wicked, isn't it?" Bails grin was so big that it was almost scary.

"What the…? Ohhhh! I know where all this is coming from! You liked him, didn't you?" she said in a low voice, not surprised by that realization.

"It's not about that, I'm just thinking about you sweetie. You might find that you like this stuff… and trying won't hurt anybody, right? If you don't like it you can always look for something else,"

Ellie and Marianne were both thinking about what Bailey had just said, which in fact, made perfect sense, when she spoke again "And besides, who wouldn't like him! That's a total and absolute hottie you've got there!"

"Well, _I_ don't like him. I mean, he is fit, and I could stare at him for a couple of hours without being bored… I guess he's just not my type. Last time I checked you were taken, weren't you?"

"I didn't say I was going to go for him! I just think it'd be a chance for you to meet somebody and have a good time - and for the tenth time this week, Mike and I aren't anything serious, we're just hanging out!"

Ellie giggled as she rolled her eyes towards Marianne, who nodded in agreement. Both of them had heard that for the past five months, the excuse both Mike and Bails gave because they didn't want to face the fact that they were a couple. What was wrong with that, nobody knew, but that was just them.

They made their way home and ordered some food since neither of them felt like cooking. Actually, Ellie couldn't cook even spaghetti, she sucked at it. Bailey and herself had to wake up early to go to class, so they decided to go to bed soon after they were done eating. As for Marianne, she had to go to class during the afternoon, so she stayed up a bit more, watching TV and cleaning her room.

She was about to put her pair of jeans folded into her closet, when a card from one of her back pockets fell to the floor. There it was, looking at her - Douglas Lee Poynter's business card. He looked young, didn't he? Oh well, he said he was at University now, it was probably just her imagination playing her a hard time…

Anyway, she took it up and took a good look at it.

_Douglas Lee Poynter  
General Manager_

She couldn't help but giggle when she looked at the title. She so didn't picture him as a 'General Manager!' And on the right side, all the store details were arranged. Underneath, just at the very bottom of the card, you could see his details. His telephone number, his mobile phone, even an address and an email. She stared at it for a couple of seconds, thinking about the job. In the end, she gave in… what did she have to lose, right? She took her mobile from her pocket and dialed the number that was on the card.

"Hello?" A man's voice answered the phone, but it didn't sound like she remembered Douglas' to be…

"Hi, Douglas?"

"No… Harry. Hold on a sec, I'll get him," (she now heard that guy yelling) "Pugs, there's a bird on the phone asking for you! I'm throwing it, catch it!" 

"Huh? Who? Okay!" It sounded as if he was away, on another floor or something.

Marianne laughed on the inside at the conversation going on between Harry and 'Pugs'. And by the way, she was a _bird_ now? Amused at those thoughts, she waited a bit till Douglas picked up the phone, and it was definitely him who finally said "Hey,"

"Hi, I'm sorry, is this a bad time? Because I can call later, or leave you my number, or not, really, there's no rush. I'm Marianne, from today? Went to the store about the job…with my friends?" She was now out of breath, as she had said that in no more than five seconds. Why was she nervous? She was talking to somebody being referred to as 'Pugs'!

"Err… no, it's ok. I was still up anyway. So, you decided to take the job?"

"If it's still there for me to take it, then yes."

"Sure it is! Why don't you come around tomorrow, I can introduce you to Harry, my _partner_ (that word caught Mar's attention, for it sounded as if Douglas didn't used it very often), and we can show you around here, tell you all the details and stuff. What do you say?"

"Sure, but I've got class on the afternoon… or I could skip, I think…is it ok if I go in the morning?"

"Well, that depends. What time in the morning?"

"I don't know. 11?"

"Yeah, that time's perfect. You would've said 10, and then we would have been into trouble, but 11's good." He was somewhat laughing at his own remark now, which in fact, Marianne hadn't got. But she didn't want to sound rude, so she just left it there.

"Right… I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?,"

"Yup, bye,"

With a smile at what she had done, Marianne flipped her mobile closing it, put on something comfy to sleep in, sat the alarm, and went to bed.

Marianne woke up at around 8.30, by the sound of her alarm clock. She stayed in bed for a couple of minutes, until the alarm started bursting out again.

"Okay, okay, I got it!" She got up, went to the bathroom and took a good look at what she had in front of her: brownish messy hair everywhere, but nothing that couldn't be solved with a nice, warm shower.

She phoned Ellie, and put her on the speaker – she'd be on a break now – while she sat by the table and ate some breakfast. She told her about the conversation with Douglas, and how she'd decided to take the job after all and give it a try.

"Got to go, the professor's here. Good luck babe! Want me to pick you up when you're done? And we can go out for dinner?"

"Yeah, sure! I'll let you know when I'm finished! Are you gonna message Bailey about it or want me to talk to her?"

"I'll look for her after class, don't worry. See you later honey!" 


	3. Aren't We Being A Bit Paranoid?

3. AREN'T WE BEING A BIT PARANOIED?

Marianne hung up and went out of the kitchen, through the living room and into her room. She picked something nice to wear - not to formal but not too casual either: a pair of black jeans, red shoes and a dark red button up shirt. As for her hair, she lifted it up in a ponytail. She looked at the time, and she still had an hour before she had to be at the store. Seeing as she had plenty of time, taking a walk down there seemed like the best idea.

She was passing through a main avenue, not paying attention because she had her iPod on and was floating around in some cloud, daydreaming as she always was, when somebody poked her left shoulder.

She turned her head and immediately pressed 'pause.'

"Could you tell me how do I get here?" a guy said, pointing an address he had written down in a paper. He must have been around her age and you could tell he was not from London - his northern accent gave him away instantly.

"Sure, that's really close. You just have to keep going that way for another four blocks and turn on your right. That'd be it," Marianne replied, trying not to make eye-contact because she was sure she'd fade if she did. Could somebody really be that beautiful? Not fair.

Before she had time to think of anything else to say in order to keep a conversation going, he had already said "Thanks!" and kept going his way.

Realizing she was standing in the middle of the street looking like a weirdo, she put her earphones back again and made her lacking way to the store. She got there in about half an hour, but it was still fifteen to eleven. There was a Starbucks right next to it, and since it was her first day, she thought about making a good first impression. She knew it was no big deal and it wasn't necessary - her 'bosses' were about her age and seemed pretty cool, but it wouldn't hurt, right?

"I'll have three cappuccinos, please," Marianne asked.

She walked out of the Starbucks and when she got back to the store, it was open. Seeing as she had the coffee and muffins -coffee was nothing without the muffins- occupying her hands, she put her back to the door and opened it that way.

There was somebody in the counter, but it wasn't Douglas. She assumed it must have been his partner, but she couldn't remember his name. She stood in front of him, paralyzed by the nerves that were there again, and waited for him to say something.

"Hello," he said amused for some reason and raising an eyebrow.

"Hi, I'm Marianne; I spoke to Douglas about a job…?"

"Oh, you're the girl who called last night! Well, seems I wasn't wrong about you…" he said clearing his throat, looking at her _still _amused.

She blushed, "Err… thanks?" she said hoping he hadn't thought a bad thing and had been right about that… and then she moved onto another train of thought, knowing that was a dangerous path she didn't wanna go through right then if she wanted to seem _normal_ and _capable_.

"I'll call Dougie and we can get started, what do you say? In the mean time, you can leave your stuff over here,"

He motioned for her to walk over his side of the counter, and put her things on a shelf under it. She did as he asked her to, and put the coffees and muffins over the upper shelf.

"Hey Marianne," Douglas said walking out of the back room and going up to give her a kiss on the cheek.

"Hi Douglas," she said shyly.

"It's Dougie," he corrected. "Are you ready to get started?" He asked with a smile.

"Sure! I brought some coffee by the way… I didn't know if you'd had breakfast but I thought-"

"See? I told you she's beyond perfection," Dougie said proudly to his partner -whom he introduced as Harry- as he put an arm around Marianne's shoulder.

"Well, I wouldn't say that… but I did bring muffins along," she said with a modest tone raising her eyebrows and smiling along.

"Yup, it's settled. You're the one," Harry said picking a muffin and a coffee from the shelf and joking around with them. It all seemed so easy that even though she was still on the look out for anything and a bit paranoid, Marianne slowly let her guard down and felt more comfortable by the second.

"Well, first of all, let me show you around," Dougie said and gave her a tour of the place. It wasn't too big – just the main store, a back room from where you accessed to two other rooms: in the central one there were other guitars, and things of that sort, alongside with shelves for the filing stuff. The smaller ones were a bathroom and a really small kitchen.

"So… that'd be it anyway," he finished as they walked into the room where Harry was again.

"Great! And what will I be doing exactly?" she asked the one question she'd been dreading to hear answered. Not the answer as much as the thought of not thinking of herself as enough to keep up with it… did I mention she was extremely pessimistic and didn't have a thing known as _self-esteem_?

"Well, as I reckon Doug told you, there are a few things we are not very good at around here… like filing. We're so disorganized, and it takes us ages to do those things. I'm serious; we're just _not _good with paper work… at all. We tried, but we're just useless with that." He shrugged honestly, and she smiled. "If you could take care of putting that together and making sure it was up to date it'd be great, I have everything you need in here," he pointed at a shelf which supposedly contained instructive and phone numbers of whom to call if a problem came up with the filing. "Besides that, pretty much what we do. But don't worry, you'll get used to being here…"

"Okay, great. But there's a small problem," Marianne said getting all red in the face, hoping there was a way around this – because honestly, she'd started to really like being there… good _vive_ as she called it.

"What's that?" he frowned

"I know _nothing_ about music." She bit her lip, apologetic.

"Oh, okay. Don't worry about it. You'll learn quickly," Harry said putting a hand on her shoulder, sensing she was ashamed. He promised to tell her what she needed to know about, and in the mean time, make sure she felt comfortable there – according to him, if she didn't like it, it wouldn't work because they didn't want somebody who felt obliged to go, but who _wanted_ to, at the reasonable extent at least. 

"In spite of being afraid I'll suck and you'll realize I'm no good for this, I really am happy I've seen the sign in time to take it, it seems like a good chance to get in touch with another side of things that attracts me even though I don't even know why…" she realized she was rambling and shut up, blushing in the slightest shade of pink.

Harry smiled and assured her she wouldn't suck, "After all whom better than us to teach you?"


	4. Strange

4. STRANGE

"Want to give me a hand with these?" Dougie said holding two big boxes full of files later on that day.

"Yeah, sure," Marianne answered, taking one of those from him.

"Come on, let's go to the back to handle these," he motioned for her to follow him. She smiled to Harry and did as she was told to.

"So, what do we have to do?" she asked putting a hand on her waist.

"Well, technically, we'd have to organize all these tickets and bills from everything we've sold in here as well as from the things we've bought for the store ever since we opened, by dates. Once that's done, we need to fill this book," he pointed at a black book on the table containing lots of symbols that Marianne instantly recognized from her Economy II class and looked up to Dougie who went on, "with their number and price. Because an inspection could come and this needs to be up to date, plus we have to present it every six months."

"Oh alright, great. Do you have a special way of organizing them or…?" 

Dougie looked at her and then at the boxes, and spoke in a way that showed he was a bit ashamed, scratching the back of his head. "We haven't really started with that yet, since we were hoping we'd find somebody who actually knew better than us, we kind of have a hard time getting it,"

"Oh, well luckily I've helped my dad a lot when I was little and he was starting off his company, so I know the basics of this… want me to do it? I could explain you how I did it in the mean time so you learn it…?" on the inside, she hoped he wouldn't see that as trespassing the warm treat she was receiving, and Dougie's nod made her smile as she'd hoped right.

"Right...well, why don't we start by making piles according to the different months, and then we take care of organizing by dates and once we have that we can worry about the inventory in detail?" Marianne suggested.

"Great, so, shall-"

"Doug, could you give me a hand over here? This is getting crowded," Harry said in a rush from the door frame, with a little box in his hand which seemed to contain a pair of speaker phones or something like it.  
"Ok so why don't you start doing that and I'll be back in a while, let me know if you need anything, ok?" Dougie smiled and he left the room.

Marianne took a deep breath, sat on the floor and placed the files from the first box next to her.

She'd been piling everything for about an hour and still had a lot to go, when Dougie walked back in – though she didn't notice until his feet where inches from her. She looked up.

"How's that coming along, need any help?" he asked.

"Hmmm... I'm good, I think. I'm almost done adding the files from the first box to the piles now,"

"Oh, great! Wow that went really fast, thank you!"

"I use to do this with my dad all the time before, so I'm kind of used to it," she smiled remembering how her relationship used to be with Matthew, her dad, before he was obliged to stay working until late hours, although something inside of her told Mar that he wanted and preferred being in that office than spending time with her. She flinched a bit, hoping it'd gone by unnoticed.

"Well, since it's almost lunch time, how about I go to Starbucks and get us something? And you tell my why you look sad, maybe?" she looked at him and realized his eyes had a bit of worry in them, although neither understood why, since they'd _known_ each other for a few hours.

"Oh, it's ok, it's nothing. But that'd be nice, thanks... Hey, Dougie?" She asked as he was walking to the door.

He stopped, turned and looked at her, humming as if waiting for her question to come.

"You didn't tell me the hours I'll be here," she said looking away, blushing a little bit.

"Oh, I totally forgot!" he laughed and so did she. It was so obvious to her that he wasn't used to having people in his charge. But, to Marianne's eyes, that only made him look even more interesting as a whole. "We were thinking with Harry something like four or five hours a day, for now... once we're done with all the filing and things we're behind at the moment maybe you'll have more free time. You're at Uni too, and we don't really know your schedule so we thought we could work around it… what do you think?"

"Absolutely perfect," she said with a nod and he walked away.

They spent the remaining of the afternoon finishing with the piles, and arranging times for her to go to the shop to work. Not to mention they went over her whole childhood, which Mar didn't mind because she was reminiscent of those times when there was just her family together and her friends from elementary, and nothing else mattered. They shared anecdotes, not really aware that they were working but doing it mechanically.

"So, how did you started writing and decided this was what you wanted? I mean… it must be hard, you have to be inspired to write and if it's your job…"

"I know what you mean, but it sort of comes naturally," she shrugged and since she saw the frown in Dougie's face, she explained it more thoroughly. "When my Dad started working so much and mom was off most of time helping him at the company, I discovered that I had a lot of free time I wasn't aware of, where I usually spent time with them and I didn't feel like hanging with my friends then, so I just started writing just for the sake of doing something… and then I saw how much I actually enjoyed it. It liberates me, it's like I'm not me, but I become a part of the story I'm writing, of its characters, of their problems, and I feel like it's my responsibility to tell that story…" I'm sorry, I'm rambling now," she apologized convinced that Dougie saw her as a freak, when in fact he didn't. On the contrary, he found himself feeling that liberty and need to be elsewhere, with no worries… which is why he'd started playing bass guitar, as he then told her.

After that one conversation, they both knew it. They'd found a friend, and neither knew that they'd be much more than that… their connection would be so pure and real that over time they'd feel as brother and sister, although it would take them a long and difficult pathway to get there. Dougie'd end up with somebody really close to her, and as for Mar… well, why don't I just get on with my story telling and you'll find out soon enough, alright?


	5. Fender Telecaster

5. FENDER TELECASTER

After a whole day of organizing files Dougie told Marianne they could leave the rest for the following day, since it was getting late and they were all tired.

"So? What do you think?" Harry asked her when she went towards the counter to get her stuff.

"I don't really know yet…"

Harry frowned.

"I have a really good feeling about this, honestly, and you guys are so nice to me! But… I still know nothing about music and I'm afraid I won't be able to help you as you need it," she spoke her worries to the boy standing in front of her, who could've been taken out of a page on a magazine for his looks. The least she could do was being honest, it might not have been the greatest job in the world to anybody else but Marianne really did feel good about it and was merely being careful.

"Don't worry, I told you we'll tell you what you need to know as many times as you need to. Besides, you're being helpful already and it's only your first day… trust me, you have nothing to worry about," he put a hand on her shoulder, after seeing the worry in her eyes. Truth being told, to the blue eyed girl, this was a way of proving herself… she'd been a little bummed out lately and realizing she was good at something might just have been what she needed. But of course, little did she know by then.

Continuing with that train of thought, right after she'd arranged to be at the store sharply at 11 the following morning, she told Bailey and Ellie during their dinner that she would be skipping the Spain trip. They'd all been looking forward to it, but this _was_ important to her too, so she made her choice.

"But that's hardly fair! I mean you studied so much this semester!" Bailey frowned confused and Ellie nodded in agreement.

"If you're sure, then we're all staying. We're not going without you, we can just go during the weekend instead," Ellie thought out loud and met two faces neither of which was expecting to hear what she had just said. Mar was thankful and Bailey put her friend's needs before her own, which is what they always did when they needed each other's backs.

"At what time do you have to be there tomorrow Mar?" Ellie asked as they were sitting on the sofa watching a special on MTV Hits, later on that night, after talking everything through.

"11, why?"

Ellie shrugged "just wanted to see if you'd be getting up early too, Bailey only has a period of Stage Photography at four, so she's not waking up before noon," they chuckled at the same time.

"Yeah, I think I'm leaving at about ten…"

"See you tomorrow then darling, I'm off, I'm knackered!"

_  
It's just another day, nothing in my way, I don't wanna go, I don't wanna stay, so there's nothing left to say…  
_  
The alarm was blasting out with Keane's latest song, Nothing in my way. Trying extremely hard not to through it off the window and go back to sleep, Marianne stretched her arm and reached it. She went into the bathroom, had a warm long shower, and put on just a little of eye shadow. Since it was really hot outside, she just left for work with a jean miniskirt and a white T-Shirt with quotes from Meet Joe Black on the back of it. Forty five minutes later the 20 years-old girl with brown somewhat curly hair walked into the store with coffee from Starbucks on her hand. She put her sunglasses over her head and placed the coffee on the counter.

"Dougie? Harry?" she said looking around.

"In here Mar!" Harry's voice came from the back room.

"Hey," She said as she walked in to find Harry and Dougie dealing with boxes that were all over the place. Huge boxes, containing instruments. "What… are you doing exactly?"

"The orders just came in a while ago, so we're settling… could you please go to the counter and take care of customers while we finish this off? If you need anything let me know. Remember, when they ask for something just look it up on the computer and it should tell you if we have it or not, and to make a sell you just do as I told you yesterday, give the receipt and put our copy of it in the red folder under the counter," he took the coffee Marianne was now handing him and smiled as she nodded in understandment.

"Sure, no problem. I'll come and get you if anything goes wrong then,"

"Of course. And even if they don't ask specific questions and you still want to you can come and get us either way, you know?" both Harry and Dougie laughed jokingly and she left the back room grinning while shaking her head.

"Excuse me" a guy said to Marianne, who was looking at a flier that had just been left by the counter. He cleared his throat and tried again, this time making Marianne's eyes set on his light brown ones instead.

"Yes, what can I do for you?" She smiled.

" I was looking for a Fender Telecaster for my friend, but I didn't see it on your catalogue... and I'd need a set of strings for my guitar too. Is this all you have or is there a way you could possibly get that for me? I searched all over town and they seem to take forever to bring them, I don't really know why…" He took a hand to the back of his head and scratched his blonde short hair.

"One second," She responded after having nodded at this boy. Marianne checked in the computer and saw that they did have it but it was currently out of stock. "Hmmm…" she wondered frowning and went to check with Dougie and Harry if they could order it or something. When she walked back out, she found the same guy standing there, with his cell phone in his hand "Yeah, dunno... hopefully! What do we do if not? Yeah I know, that's why I'm telling you that! Hang on," he said and looked at Marianne.

"If you could fill this form over here and leave a 5% deposit of the total cost we can have it here by next Monday, full refund and guarantee for two years with the instruments' maker." she gave him the form and a pen and watched as excited, he spoke again into his mobile phone.

"Thank you so much! Listened to that, mate? Yeah, ok. I'll ask for that one then, we can both come and pick it up to check that nothing's wrong and get the strings and everything,"

He nodded and filled the form. After she gave him a card of the store and he promised he'd be back in a week, he turned around and left.

A few more customers like that –asking things currently out of stock- and then some other sells and the day was coming to an end. When they were an hour away from closing, they both came out of the back, apparently with everything under control.

"Everything ok over here?" Harry asked Mar, as he was leaning against the wall behind the counter.

"Yeah, pretty handled," she told them everything that she'd done and once they'd nodded and arranged everything she asked them if they'd managed to finish everything alright.

"Pretty much the same. I'm knackered though." Harry yawned.

"Are you going out tonight?" Marianne asked them, but sensing the answer would be no from the tired looks on their faces.

"Yeah, for a drink to chill a bit I guess… For a short while," he chuckled and Dougie asked her what her plans were.

Marianne shrugged and took out her cell phone from her back pocket and looked at the screen. She'd thought of giving the girls a call to see what they felt like doing, when she saw the two new messages from Bailey letting her now that they were picking her up and going out, stating she had something to tell her.

"…actually, now I find out I'm actually going to a pub, so yeah…that." She frowned. Something seemed off, and made her feel uneasy as to if her friend would be ok. A thought crossed her mind then. "You could join us, if you want?"

Harry looked thoughtfully at Dougie who returned the gaze. "Sure, why not. If that's ok with you and your friends… where are we going?" Harry asked.


	6. First Day Of 'Holidays'

6. FIRST DAY OF 'HOLIDAYS'.

The group headed towards the pub after having had dinner at a restaurant at about 10.30, all of them in Bailey's car.

There was a positive atmosphere and it felt good to get to know each other in a different way. It was only a matter of time before they started realizing that they actually got on so well they'd start hanging out more… there was something that attracted Harry and Dougie about the girls, like they wanted to get to know them, their histories, their secrets, and wanted them to be happy. They'd become close, friends in no time.

Like the bond that had started to form between Dougie and Marianne, Ellie and Harry spent the whole evening talking about sports –both freaks who loved it, although Ellie sucked at playing anything with a ball involved, whichever its type or size- and the whatnots of growing up in 'wealthy' environment (they actually realized they had a friend in common from their childhood. How about that?!) It was weird though, having known them for such a short time but feeling as if they'd been in each other lives a lot more.

That weekend they got together again at Ellie's –where the three girls lived but which had been bought by Ellie's parents when she'd got to university.

"Turn down the volume; the guys will be arriving soon and we won't listen to the bell ringing." Marianne looked at Bailey who was lying in a sofa with The Kooks blasting from the stereo.

Ellie walked into the living room and sat next to her friend while Mar had gone outside to enjoy the sunny day reading a book – a rare thing to come across in London – in the backyard.

"So, how's Matt?" Ellie asked the curly haired brunette (but who had shades of purple in her head now).

"You know how the other day I told you I had something to tell you and I ended up not telling you?" Ellie nodded, remembering that conversation where she'd decided not to press on the issue just in case it was something she didn't feel ready to talk about yet.

"Well, the thing is…I think I'm going to dump him." Quietly looking at her feet, Bailey mouthed those words, appearing to be thinking hard on the subject, as if this wasn't just rush decision that had just crossed her mind.

"What? Darling, what happened? I thought everything was alright between you two…"

"I really don't think I can keep on with this Ellie. We've been going out for over six months but I just can't keep on _not_ dating him as his girlfriend. I thought I'd manage to work things out but don't you think that if he wanted to be with me for good he'd do something about it and leave all the lame, crappy excuses aside? " she looked hurt but Ellie believed this idea had been growing inside Bailey's head for a while now…

Ellie hugged her friend and assured her that maybe she was better off now, that it was just a sign that she didn't have to be with him. They stayed silent for a while - about fifteen minutes, until the doorbell ringing broke the silence.

"C'mon, go up and wash your face, I'll let Dougie and Harry in, ok?"

"Hey girls," Harry walked in and kissed Ellie on the cheek while he saw Mar standing right behind her friend, grinning. 

They sat and spent a quiet evening having pizza and talking about their lives. It turned out that Dougie liked playing bass, something that Marianne didn't expect him to do, at all; she could picture him as anything but a bassist... but of course she'd been wrong about him before, so he could be great at if as far as she new.

It made sense though; since they were pursuing music in College, they were meant to be doing something related to that. That's when Harry told them that he had started to learn how to play the drums the previous year. Bailey's face lit up for the first time in the whole afternoon by the mention of that. You see, she was actually teaching Ellie how to play, because she'd been playing since she was three –her dad used to play when he was younger and had taught her. The girls even had their set in the room that came before the house's yard.

Caught up talking, not one of the five that were sitting there realized when the clock turned 2 am, and it was by the sound of Ellie's cell phone alarm (she was recovering from a bad, bad, cold so she had to take these pills every couple of hours) that they came back to Planet Earth and left about half an hour later.

"Mar, wake up. You've gotta be in the store in half an hour," Ellie whispered poking Marianne's shoulder the following Monday morning.

She mumbled something in return, got up and went into the bathroom. She felt groggy, maybe she was still sick or about to be sick again… or maybe she just missed sleeping in. Twenty minutes and a shower later, Mar walked down the stairs wearing a purple short dress, a pair of jeans and sandals, to meet her roommates who were both having breakfast by the kitchen area.

"I've got nothing to do now, want me to drive you? I'm not starting my shift until 12 and it's only 9," Ellie asked while Bailey picked her purse, her car keys and kissed them both in the cheek before going to work herself.

"Yeah, sure. Give me two minutes to finish my coffee and grab my bag and we can go hun,"

The morning went by pretty fast; Mondays were always hectic because they had deliveries from people's requests, new stuff, and other things that maybe had sold out being brought to the store early in the mornings. Putting everything where it belonged and classifying the stuff took quite some time too, not to mention they still had a few remaining of the mess the boys had done with the files to finish organizing.

Marianne was now on the back room placing some small boxes that had plectrums in them in one of the shelves when Harry walked in to ask her where had she put the Fender Telecaster the blonde guy by the name of Tom had asked for the previous week, because he couldn't find it.

"Oh it's here, want me to take it to him?" she asked smiling.

"No, it's ok, I've got it covered. Thanks, Mar."

She didn't put her headphones back on her ears but listened to the conversation going on at the counter, between Harry, Tom and another guy whose voice Mar didn't recognize.

"This is so cool, mate!" Marianne listened to Tom say with a squeaky and excited voice.

"Awesome. Just as I wanted," The guy Marianne didn't know had spoken. She assumed that it was him who strummed it, even if it wasn't connected to the amps. Guess he must've known what he was asking for cause that sounded like a really nice tune...

"Excuse me, could you give me more information on this, please?" a lady's voice was heard.

It was Dougie got into the room where Marianne was cleaning and asked her to charge Tom while he took care of the lady asking questions and Harry finished doing some paperwork on the other stuff they'd received that day.

Immediately Marianne left the boxes on a desk, instinctively fixed her hair a little bit and walked out with a smile plastered on her face.


	7. Flyers

7. FLYERS

As she got out of the back room, Marianne saw the back of what she assumed was Tom's friend walking out of the store with the Fender Telecaster in his hand, in its case of course.

"Hello again," Tom nodded towards Marianne and she smiled back.

"Hey, hope that Fender was the one you wanted?"

"Oh yeah, awesome. Actually it's for my mate, he's taking it to the car now…"

"I'm glad to hear that, then. So, correct me if I'm wrong… you're taking a Fender Telecaster that you'd ordered a week ago, three packs of twelve guitar picks and two sets of strings, and you'd paid 5% beforehand, right?"

"Yup, how much is it?"

Marianne counted everything and charged Thomas Fletcher -she saw his full name on his credit card. As she was waiting for the ticket to be printed so he could sign it and finish the operation, he spoke "By the way, could I ask you something?"

She looked up at him enquiringly and Tom went on.

"Could I leave you some flyers? See, with my mate we want to form a band … so I thought maybe you guys wouldn't mind if I left you some flyers here?"

"Sure, I don't think that'll be a problem. They include details for people to contact you, and everything?"

"Yeah, of course… it's all in there."

"Ok then, why don't you give them to me and I'll find a place in one of our counters tonight when I clean everything up before closing. Does that work for you?" she asked.

"Perfect, thank you so much!" Tom grinned and signed the ticket that Marianne had just handed over to him.

"You're welcome, good luck with that!"

Tom took the bag with the strings and the guitar picks and gave Marianne a bunch of flyers thanking her for her help.

"So… I guess I'll see you sometime soon, then... hopefully." He smiled and waved her goodbye, as she held the flyers in her hand. She nodded and giggled, looking down at the papers she was holding.  
_  
Guitarists and singers interested in forming a band need more members! _

_Call: 7736395142  
_(ask for Daniel Jones or Tom Fletcher).

Influences: The Beatles, The Who, Queen…

In a smaller print, there were at least fifty names on that 'Influences' category. Marianne couldn't help but chuckle when she read that. In her opinion, they should've been more specific as to how many members were they looking, playing what, and so on. But then again, she really _was _ignorant in what came to that subject so she didn't say anything. Marianne placed the flyers in a shelf under the counter and went into the back room –since Dougie was already free, ready to take care of customers for a while.

The day went by quietly. Since it was Monday, it was mostly people that had already ordered for stuff and was there to pick it up. When it was time for her to go home, she cleaned the counter and placed the flyers Tom had given her before on a corner of it, just before closing up.

"Need a ride, Mar?" Harry asked her as he saw her putting her coat on, ready to leave. Dougie had left an hour before because he had to pay some bills and take care of some errands in the town centre.

"I can take the underground, don't worry. I don't want to make you go all the way up there… but thanks anyway,"

"You sure? I don't mind, really… I'm done here for today, so…" He was placing the filing folder -where they kept the monthly records and tickets of what they sold- in a shelf.

"Ok, then. Thanks Harry,"

"No problem, Mar." He took his car keys from the counter and noticed the flyers that had been left there by Marianne only a while ago "What are these?" his hand reached out for one and he read it.

"Oh, that. Remember those guys that came here earlier? The blonde one that had ordered the Fender Telecaster? Well he said something about needing members for a band or something like that and asked if he could leave some flyers… is that ok?" she had almost forgotten about that by now, actually.

"Yeah, sure." Harry shrugged and looked at if for a couple of seconds, thinking. He placed it back where he'd taken it from and looked at Mar. "Shall we?" he opened the door and let her go out first. Then, he turned off the lights and locked the door.


	8. Author's Note

Hey you all

Hey you all! 

I just wanted to thank you for the PMs I've been getting about my fics, and asking not to stop posting and such. Of course also for the reviews, and those of you who favourited this or any other of my stories, thank you! I will try my best to post soon more updates of my other fictions too, it's just that with uni finals I'm trying hard to cope up with everything.

Serendipity is not even close to finished! I've got more than 71 chapters written already.

Living the Dream is finished and I'm working on the sequel at the moment, I really hope you guys will like that!

It's not always Easy is halfway written, so as you see, I am still working on my writing!!

Thanks again for the patience and support guys! Even if it were one person reading them, still, thank you!! For thinking it's worth of your time… hehe.

Am glad you like it

Take care!!

Ellie

Ps. I'll post this in the three fics mentioned above.


	9. Dream Big

8. DREAM BIG

_If you don't have faith,_

_There's nothing worth believing_

_It takes wild hope_

_To make the stars worth reaching for,_

_So we dream for something more -_

That night when she got home there was nobody there; Bailey was out with Matt, they had a _serious _talk to have. As for Ellie, according to the text she'd sent earlier, she was out having dinner with her cousins who were in town to run some errands. Not being hungry, Marianne plunked herself on the sofa and decided to wait up for them. Who had her specially worried was Bailey – she'd seen how down she'd got over the past few days.

So Mar went to her room, got into her boxers and hoodie, made some tea, and put on a movie to keep her awake.

"Babe," she heard somebody whispering into her ear. She opened her eyes and saw Ellie's face frowning at her. "What are you doing here?" Marianne turned her head and saw she was lying in the sofa, probably had dozed off there.

"I was waiting for you guys," she yawned explaining and asked her if Bailey had arrived yet.

"I don't think she has, she texted me a little while ago saying she was about to be on her way…" they both stared at each other worried. In the back of their heads, they both expected this to happen sooner or later, but that didn't make it better. The last thing they wanted was to see her friend suffering… she really was into Matt, even if she wouldn't admit it to even herself.

"Oh well, why don't we make some coffee?" they sighed and Mar got up, following Ellie into the kitchen.

By that time it was about 1 am, and Bailey didn't get there until half past two. As you can imagine, the prospect wasn't good… they had to stay up for about four more hours until Bailey had calmed herself enough so as to fall asleep. She cried, pouted, and even swore she wouldn't let another guy into her life like that to end up being hurt. That was when the other two shut her up immediately and told her things as they were: she was an adorable girl, and it wasn't her fault that things hadn't worked out with Matt. They could like each other a lot but simply not work out together… it still sucked though.

The following morning it took three cups of coffee (without milk) and a long, cold shower to wake Mar up in time to go to the store. She didn't have time to hide the bags under her eyes or put a bit of make up on…. "Oh well, it won't get any better than this," she said out loud and shrugged looking at her reflection in the bathroom.

Marianne left their place just in time to take a taxi and get there in time; she was running late already –of course she had time to stop by the Starbucks, though.

Her leg length white skirt became visible alongside with her black shirt to Dougie and Harry just when they were turning on the lights and starting up the

computer. She couldn't help but yawn and even if she hadn't, the tiredness in her face was just impossible to hide.

"Rough night?" Dougie asked chuckling and helping her with the Starbucks bag and coffee cups.

"You have no idea," she said sourly.

"That doesn't sound so good… what happened?" Harry asked twisting his mouth to the side in concern.

Marianne sighed, and proceeded to explain everything that had happened since she'd got home the night before, leaving some details aside, of course. By the time she had finished, they both were shaking their heads and had long faces. As I previously mentioned, the inexplicable bound forming between the five of them was nothing but growing exponentially fast that when something like _this_ happened, they felt as if it was one of their lifetime mates suffering. Nobody wanted to see a friend down, but being Bailey… it was just wrong. She'd been through quite a lot when it came to relationship and opening her heart to Matt hadn't been easy. So Mar really was sad to have to see her friend down like that. And she really wanted to kick Matt a thousand times – you get the picture.

"That sucks. But I don't get it, if he cared about her, why didn't he just…?" Harry wondered aloud and it was Dougie who finished his sentence "do something about it?"

Marianne shrugged, had a sip from her coffee and sighed.

"We should do something… to distract her, I mean, until she feels better…" Harry voiced his thoughts.

Marianne and Ellie had been thinking about that the previous night, since they'd never seen her friend in that state before, but they hadn't come up with any solution other than taking her out for a drink. "Hmm… what do you have in mind?"

Harry looked at Dougie thoughtful. "I don't know… if she's working today we could pick her up? A friend of mine told me about a band playing at the opening of this pub tonight, we could go… or do something during the weekend, you said she plays drums? We could get together and play something this weekend, just for fun… or…"

"Wow that's great Harry, thank you! You don't have to though… I know you guys are pretty busy with this and stuff…" Mar said pointing at the store.

"Nah, it's ok. I mean, I want to. If it was me like that, I'd feel better if I knew somebody cared about me being happy, you know,"

"Yeah, I agree. Like last summer when-" Dougie started saying but Harry sent him a wary look and he shut up. He went on directing the conversation in another direction instead, "Point is, we're in."

"Okay… thanks guys, I'll phone Ellie later because I'm sure she's catching up on her sleep now, and I'll let her know about your idea for tonight," Mar smiled and they did so too, agreeing with her.

"Great then, let's get down to business then," Dougie clapping his hands together and lightening up the mood.

Marianne went to the back and stayed there filing for a long while, and it was around midday when she texted Ellie putting her up to date with what had happened. They'd agreed to wait for Ellie at the store and pick up Bailey from work together, to go see the band Harry had suggested,

"Hey Mar, there are some flyers there on the counter, you got any idea what are those? Harry's out and I'd figured he'd put them but maybe you know…"

"The ones about the band members needed?" She asked thoughtfully.

"Yeah, those!"

"Oh yes, a guy came the other day and asked me if he could leave them here, that maybe he'd get what he was looking for…" she shrugged and he _ohh_ed.

"Could you come to the front and give me a hand? It's kinda crowded," he chuckled and asked her if she could explain that to the guy asking information about them. She hoped that Tom would find a nice guy to form a band with; he'd seemed so nice that she actually wanted that for him – his dimples had bought her from the very first instant. After explaining everything to Jess (a reddish haired boy a bit taller than Harry who asked if she had any more information available to give her about that_) and_ filling in Dougie on the subject at the same time –he wanted to be up to date with everything going on in case anybody asked him, she moved on to selling some plectrums for a brunette who came in asking for them.

Later on that evening, Dougie found himself staring at the small piece of paper with Daniel Jones and Thomas Fletcher's details with a Starbucks coffee on his hand.

"Penny for your thoughts," Mar said from behind him – the store was empty right then except for two teenage girls staring at the Fenders up on the wall.

Dougie opened his mouth to speak and closed it again. His eyes had a strange glow in them, once she'd never seen before. He shrugged, put the flyer back on the counter and simply said "It's stupid, never mind… what time's it?"

Marianne raised an eyebrow, speculating. She felt she was looking at a 'hidden side' of Dougie that had been kept from her. Nothing creepy, don't get carried away you psycho! "You sure? You seem…" she struggled for the right word "uneasy about something," her blue eyes stared straight at his, waiting for an answer. She hoped she wasn't meddling with any personal business of him; she just wanted to make sure he didn't need anybody's help… anything wrong with that? I didn't think so.

"Remember how I told you I play bass…? Well I was just thinking… but it's stupid, forget it,"

Completely lost, she mouthed without thinking "Go on,"

"Well… I was just thinking about what you told me earlier, about those guys… but I suck anyway, so," he shrugged and now she saw the direction of his unspoken questions clear in his eyes as a rainy day in London.

"You are thinking of calling them, aren't you?"

"Well... but it's impossible, I don't have any time for that right now and they wouldn't take me anyway cause I've barely started out and I'm telling you I don't play good as in at all," there was a small pout visible in his expression throughout that whole lame excuse he'd given her. She realized it was an excuse, and also saw how his fear of being rejected led him to dismiss the chance rather than take it and see what might happen.

"You don't know that," she said softly and patted his shoulder. "What did Harry tell you?"

The panic was too obvious in his eyes. It was at that time that Marianne realized how fragile he actually was, and how much his face could be read – if you paid the right amount of attention, of course. "Listen, why don't you talk this through with your family? You told me you were really close to your mom and sister, right?" he nodded. "Well, they know you better than anybody, and better than I do for sure. Maybe they know what you should do, but if you ask me, I think you should totally go for it. I have faith in you, you know,"

He smiled shyly and got up from the stool he'd been sitting in. "Errr.. thanks, Mar. I mean it,"

She grinned. "Anytime… _pugs._" He chuckled and she giggled. She just wanted to lighten up the mood, get him to smile… and it'd worked. "Seriously, the worse they can do is tell you you suck, which according to you that's a given, so what's there to lose? And who knows, maybe you can take something positive and good about all this. If you're wondering and you even considered for a second the possibility of phoning them is because maybe you don't think you suck as much as you say you do,"

He frowned and she smiled.

"Just think about it, yeah?" he nodded once and with that, their conversation had to come to an end when the pair of teenagers asked to be charged for a bass guitar they wanted to buy. Marianne told Dougie she had it cover, and asked him with a wink to cover her for a while in the back with the filing. Apparently he had a lot to think about…

"Mar?" he popped his head a little bit later when she was almost done with that order.

"Could we keep this between us? I don't think I'll do anything about this but in case I do, could you _not_ tell Harry? I think I should tell him… if there's anything to tell at all, anyway," he scratched the back of his head and with a single nod she let him know she'd got the message.

_Now it's time for change, _

_No I can't wait another day._


	10. Author's Note II

Hey guys!

as you can see I'd been awfully stuck with this fic!

I've decided to rewrite to turn it a bit and see if it convinced me more and luckily now it does!

so feel free to check from chapter 1-7 for the rewritten and edited version of this fiction. also, added an 8th chapter!

uni's driving me crazy, but I'll try to post some more soonish!

I hope you guys like this slightly different version! feel free to review giving opinions, those are always welcome :)

xx

ellie


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